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Results tagged ‘ Eduardo Sanchez ’

Greetings on another stunningly beautiful day at Busch Stadium. The temperature reads 77 degrees, I can see exactly one cloud from my perch up here, and there’s just not going to be a nicer night for a ballgame all year.

A few tidbits for your reading pleasure before I spin them into a notebook on the site:

* Eduardo Sanchez threw a fairly aggressive bullpen session today, more like a simulated game, in which he sat down in between “innings” and got back up to throw again. Sanchez feels he’s very close to being ready — maybe only one more throw. TLR sounds, not surprisingly, a little more cautious but still expects him to pitch this season.

* This weekend’s rotation is Edwin Jackson on Friday, Jaime Garcia on Saturday and Jake Westbrook on Sunday, followed by Lohse and Carpenter to start the Pirates series. Jackson pitches on his four days’ rest, Garcia on six, and the other pitchers will all be on five days’ rest.

* David Freese sits again, with TLR noting that he’s slumping and that facing Zack Greinke isn’t exactly the way to get out of a slump.

* Tyler Greene will likely get a start over the weekend against Atlanta.

Today’s playlist is an iPhone shuffle special:
Depeche Mode, “Nothing”
Sugar, “Gee Angel”
Papercuts, “I’ll See You Later I Guess”
Cold War Kids, “Welcome to the Occupation”
Counting Crows, “Have You Seen Me Lately”

* Matt Holliday is out of the lineup today due to an illness. What EXACTLY he’s dealing with is not clear, but it’s something in a stomach bug-flu kind of realm.

* That’s PART of why Lance Berkman is back in the lineup, one day after sitting out with discomfort in his right rotator cuff. Ideally they might have given Berkman an extra precautionary day, but with no Holliday, that equation changed somewhat.

* TLR declined to describe the shortstop situation right now as a true platoon, noting that Ryan Theriot started against a RHP in Pittsburgh. Still, he acknowledged that Theriot is fighting it against right-handers right now, and that means more time for Daniel Descalso. The manager also said he’s been impressed by what he’s seen defensively from Descalso at SS.

“Like happens to virtually everybody, his stroke is not quite there,” TLR said. “So while he works to get it right, you give somebody else a chance to get some at-bats.”

* Kyle Lohse threw a bullpen session today and said he’s feeling better than he did at this time on his last turn through the rotation. He didn’t put a great deal of strain on his sore finger, however.

* TLR didn’t put much stock in the contention that the field played a big part in last night’s result. It was, of course, the first game played at Busch Stadium since the ballpark was re-sodded following the July 17 U2 concert.

His quote: “Colby didn’t fall. He made a diving play. I saw the guy [Hunter Pence] probably lost it in the lights, break in, misjudge it, we’ve seen that happen on fields that I don’t know if it’s slippery or not. I didn’t see anybody else slip out there. I’m not saying he didn’t. I think that the field is not 100 percent what it’s going to be, or maybe it is, if it stays hot like this. But there weren’t guys slipping all over the place yesterday. I wouldn’t make that conclusion it’s a slippery field because guys were not slipping. That was an awkward play.”

Some of this will be covered in more depth in Austin Laymance’s notebook, which will go on the site a bit later this evening. But in the meantime, a look at some of the various topics going on pregame today.

* Albert Pujols is, of course, in the lineup. TLR said he has no specific plan to get Pujols a rest day here or there, or to play him two and sit him one, or anything like that.

“Just talk to him,” the manager said. “Check him out all the time. During the game, after the game, next day.”

TLR also said that if Pujols is asked to go to the All-Star Game as an injury replacement for someone, he hopes Pujols accepts.

* Gerald Laird is scheduled to be back in StL tomorrow, but it’s still not a certainty. TLR sounded a bit hesitant to call up Laird after only two games worth of rehab. Still, it sounds like the most likely thing is that we’ll see Laird tomorrow.

* David Freese is just getting a scheduled rest day. He’s played every game since being activated from the DL, and they just felt it was time to get him a breather.

* Eduardo Sanchez is in fact expected back for the first game after the break.

* Allen Craig is a little further behind. Per young Laymance, Craig is still a few days away from swinging a bat, which means that he’s likely at least a week away from going out on a rehab assignment. And it’s pretty safe to guess that Craig won’t have a 2- or 3-day rehab. They’ll probably want to make sure he gets some at-bats.

* They’re still in discussions as to what exactly the rotation will look like coming out of the All-Star break. However, with the extra off day on Thursday, TLR and Dave Duncan can deploy the starters in any order they wish for those games.

* According to a club source, Matt Carpenter is the player on his way out today to make room for Kyle McClellan on the active roster. Carpenter will be optioned to Triple-A Memphis. Carpenter went 1-for-15 with a double, four walks and four strikeouts in seven games.

* Pitching coach Dave Duncan told KFNS 590 AM this morning that Eduardo Sanchez has some “tightness in his shoulder” and will be unavailable for a few days. I’ll obviously be chasing this today.

The tarp is out right now at GABP, but from people I’ve talked to, it sounds like we should be OK for the game.

* We had a long chat with Dave Duncan today, about a lot of different aspects of the bullpen. I’ll be writing on it at some length later this afternoon, but a couple of main things came out of it. One, for now, it appears that Eduardo Sanchez’s role is going to change for a while. They feel he’s pitched differently in the ninth than he did when he was pitching in other situations. So although he’s likely unavailable today, he probably wouldn’t be the guy to close a game even if he were fully fresh.

* Two, the two guys they WOULD aim toward, at least for now, are as mentioned a few days ago: Mitchell Boggs and Fernando Salas. Though Boggs’ profile has dropped quite a bit since that one rough game in Houston, Duncan maintains that he likes what he’s seeing from Boggs, and that there’s a good chance he would be the guy to close out today’s game. Duncan is also very pleased with the way Salas is throwing. The complication is that Salas threw two innings yesterday — however, he only threw 17 full-effort pitches (plus four on an intentional walk).

* Matt Holliday still has some soreness from hitting his left foot with a foul ball yesterday, but he’s OK to play and is in the lineup.

* Ryan Theriot, as noted in the lineup post, is back in there after missing some time with a sore right oblique. Nick Punto is out but will likely start at third base tomorrow. Lance Berkman will play tomorrow against lefty Travis Wood.

The situation: Cardinals lead, 3-0, going into the ninth. Kyle McClellan is coming on strong, having retired 13 straight, and is at 102 pitches. Prince Fielder, Casey McGehee and Yuniesky Betancourt are the scheduled hitters. Both Eduardo Sanchez and Ryan Franklin had already warmed, and Sanchez in particular was ready.

The decision: McClellan stays in the game for one batter, allows a single to Fielder and is removed for Sanchez.

The analysis: There are three or four potential courses of action here.

* You can go ahead and get McClellan out before the inning even starts, going to Sanchez.

* He could have warmed Trever Miller instead of Franklin, and gone to Miller to get Prince Fielder before going to Sanchez.

* You can stay with McClellan, but give him a little bit longer rope, say one more baserunner, and just get him out before he has the chance to be the losing pitcher. This has often been the TLR way over the years.

* Or you can do what he did — leave McClellan in until there is a baserunner.

Staying with McClellan with a three-run lead seems to be largely about giving him a chance to finish off his own game. Within the clubhouse, that’s a powerful factor. But I’m not sure it maximizes the chances of winning the game. Meanwhile, it also makes it highly likely that you’re going to bring in Sanchez with at least one runner on base. The Cardinals have shown tremendous confidence in Sanchez, but even so, it seems like the best bet for his development is to minimize those situations when possible.

Going to Miller wasn’t really an option by the time the ninth started, because he hadn’t warmed up. And I understand why Franklin was warming alongside Sanchez in the eighth. If the Cardinals get a couple of runs, then you’ve got a perfect low-leverage situation for him to get some work. So Miller wasn’t entirely viable, though I think there was a decent case for getting him in there.

It seems that if you’re really trying to maximize winning the game, rather than playing for McClellan to get the shutout, then you do give him a little longer leash than he got. If you truly believe he’s your best option against Fielder, then isn’t he also your best option against McGehee? McClellan is the better bet to get the groundball than Sanchez. He’s also much less likely to issue a walk, and walks are really the most likely way for this inning to get dangerous — as we all saw.

Going straight to Sanchez, meanwhile, gives your closer-in-training a potentially clean inning. It allows him a little leeway and hopefully allows him to pitch aggressively.

The comment: “We were going to watch the eighth real closely. As you know, in the middle of the eighth inning, Sanchez got up and started playing catch. It looked to me that he was right at the point where he had done enough, and he gets the out, so we let him go back out there.” — TLR.

My verdict: I would have gone straight to Sanchez. I don’t think there was any need to push McClellan, and I think it’s also what’s best for Sanchez. If it was in fact McClellan’s game, I probably would have given him two baserunners rather than one. But if it’s not his game to stick it out a little while, then I think the best move is to get him out before there’s any trouble at all.

Greetings, all, from my last stop on this road trip. I’ll be headed home tomorrow, getting a few days off before rejoining the club for the next homestand. I hate to miss out on Dodger Stadium, but two out of three cities on a trip is plenty in most cases. Here are your postgame notes and goodies…

Notes of the night:

* Matt Holliday said he was fine after being hit on the left hand by a pitch. He didn’t even seem to realize we were waiting for him after the game, to check on how he came through it. He said he had no plan to get any further examination.

* Likewise for Ryan Theriot — there were no issues for him after being hit on the forearm.

* Eduardo Sanchez was pretty impressive in his Major League debut, striking out five in two innings. When I approached him after the game, he was just putting down his phone. I asked him how many messages, and he said, “about a hundred.”

Stat of the day:

Despite their slow start, the Cardinals actually now have a positive run differential. They’ve outscored their opponents by four runs on the year.

PHOENIX — The Cardinals confirmed Wednesday that both Bryan Augenstein and Brian Tallet are being placed on the 15-day disabled list due to injuries they suffered in Tuesday night’s game against the Diamondbacks.

Fernando Salas and Eduardo Sanchez have been recalled from Triple-A Memphis to take their places on the roster. Both Salas and Sanchez are available for Wednesday night’s game.

Augenstein suffered a strained right groin during Tuesday’s game, while Tallet has a fracture in his right hand. Tallet was injured when he and Stephen Drew became entangled on a play at first base.

Salas, 25, pitched effectively in limited duty for the Cardinals in 2010, posting a 3.52 ERA in 27 appearances. He made three scoreless appearances for Memphis in 2011 prior to his recall. Sanchez, 22, will be on a big league roster for the first time. He has pitched three shutout innings over two games for Memphis this year. In 2010, split between Double-A Springfield and Memphis, Sanchez recorded a 2.38 ERA, 58 strikeouts and 20 walks in 53 innings.

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